Her heart rapped out another beat of warning, not that Serena needed it. She could feel herself edging closer to the dangerous territory that she normally avoided at all costs, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. Something about him was pulling her further and further in, encouraging everything she knew she shouldn’t be feeling. Everything she hadn’t wanted to feel since suffering her miscarriage, because she knew exactly where those feelings led. To pleasure, but also, potentially, to pain. The worst pain she’d ever known and never wanted to experience again.
‘What I want,’ he began, and his eyes as they swept over her again, were hot—shameless and decadent, ‘is for you to have a drink with me.’
The thrill that streaked through her sent her pulse beating desperately against her skin, but she shook her head quickly, before her traitorous lips could strike again. ‘I can’t.’
‘You can’t?’ His eyebrows arched, taken aback by her words. And she wasn’t surprised. There was an aura of power about him, which suggested that he was unaccustomed to hearing the wordnofrom anyone—in either a personal or professional capacity—but most especially from women.
She gave another shake of her head, her throat growing dry. ‘I was actually just leaving to go back to my hotel. I had dinner with my friends and they headed into the club, but I have an early start. My boss likes a rundown of her daily schedule first thing in the morning and…’
He moved a step closer and Serena instantly fell silent. Her body started to hum as his grey eyes glowed down at her, glittering as if they’d been made from stardust. Their bodies were almost touching again, his tall and lean physique just a fingertip away, and she could detect the scent of his skin; hints of lemon and vanilla dancing beneath her nose, forcing her to take only the tiniest of breaths even though she wanted to take a deep inhale of him, to catch that scent and hold it close. Drown in it. ‘One drink. I promise not to keep you out too late.’
Serena’s throat dried even more, and the lowest part of her stomach tightened too, because that wasn’t the only promise glittering in his eyes. There was heat and seduction swirling in them too and, God help her, Serena wanted to say yes. More than she’d ever wanted to say yes to anything.
It wasn’t just that he was making her feel more than she’d felt in a long time, he was making her feel as she’d never felt before, all fizzed up inside like a shaken bottle of champagne. And she wanted more if it. She wanted more of this intoxicating and vibrant sense of being alive, of being on the edge of something unknown and exciting. She wanted to feel more of the delicious, dangerous heat that unravelled within her when his smoky eyes swept over her, more of the fierce beating of her pulse, the way he was making her feel beautiful and sexy and wanted when she so often felt the complete opposite.
But the consequences…
Drinks with handsome men with wicked smiles and sexy eyes were even more forbidden than nightclubs and short skirts, and should she find out, Marcia wouldn’t hesitate to exact her punishment, and that awareness had Serena’s heart fluttering fretfully. But even more frightening was the risk she’d be taking with her own body and heart if she did leap into that fire, as part of her very much wanted to. She had her own reasons for avoiding intimacy of any kind—because she didn’t want to risk falling pregnant again. Even the thought of it was enough to crack her heart apart, and it was that fear which flowed through her blood, intensifying with every second.
The only thing Serena could do, what shehadto do, was repeat her refusal. But then she imagined her handsome stranger tuning away and disappearing from her sight forever. A sense of lung-squeezing loss gripped her, and she knew that she couldn’t say no.
Would there really be any harm in one drink with him? In letting herself, for a little while, enjoy an exhilarating flirtation with a very handsome man? It didn’t need to go any further than that. And she was seven thousand miles away from home, after all. There was no reason for Marcia to ever know it happened. But Serena would. It would a be a break from her normal monotony, a delicious memory to tuck away and take out to look at on her loneliest and dreariest days, of which there were many.
‘Alright, one drink,’ she agreed, fireworks exploding in her stomach as she seized the moment and chose to forget, just this once and just for a little while, the many reasons why she absolutely shouldn’t.
The first thought in Caleb Morgenthau’s head when he looked down at the woman who had crashed into him was that she was beautiful. With red-gold hair falling in a gleaming wave down her back and the creamy complexion of her slender face that boasted prominent cheekbones and bright eyes, she was captivating. His second thought was to wonder if she had walked into him on purpose. He’d known women to do far crazier things to get his attention. His third thought, hot on the heels of his second, was that he didn’t really care whether the collision had been a construct on her part or an accident. The result remained the same. He was interested. Very much so. But having learned from past mistakes, Caleb was careful to only engage with women who had a similar mindset as his own, women uninterested in anything other than a night of pleasurable abandon, and before he took things any further, he needed to make sure she fit that mould.
He studied her with an assessing gaze and, reading the heat in the eyes that clung to him and sensing the same hunger for a night of uncomplicated pleasure beating through her blood, Caleb, to his delight, intuited there was no danger at all in indulging his temptation and invited her to join him for a drink. Her initial refusal didn’t concern him—he’d never felt in any real danger of being rejected—and now he was leading her up to the rooftop lounge, where they would linger for one drink, maybe two, before hopefully ending the evening in his bed.
His mind was already racing ahead to that moment when he could slide the dress from her body and see the delights that lay beneath. He could picture her long red hair spilling across his pillows, her creamy skin glowing beneath the white fire of the moonlight as she stared up at him with breathless rapture while he brought her to orgasm over and over again. The sexy image had an irresistible anticipation roaring through his veins, unlike anything he’d felt for the longest time.
When was the last time he’d been so impatient for a woman? Lately his sexual encounters had become indistinguishable from one another, the experiences all shades of the same colour. But there was something about this woman whose name he didn’t yet know. Something about the way her eyes had held his, how that slow curving smile seemed to hint at something different. Something unexpected. He felt drawn to her in a way he couldn’t put words to.
He was so deep in his musings that it was only her small gasp of delight as they emerged on the rooftop that alerted him to their arrival.
‘Wow. I thought the city was beautiful from down on the ground, but from here it’s even more spectacular.’ Her eyes swept side to side several times to take in the wonder of Singapore’s glowing skyline; the pale lights of the business district and the colourful illuminations of the Gardens by the Bay. ‘I’m surprised it’s not busier up here though,’ she commented, as he led her to a vacant table in the corner with views across the vibrant city. ‘I thought the rooftop lounge was fully booked tonight. My friend, Evie, wanted to come up here for a drink before dinner and was so disappointed when we couldn’t get in.’
‘This is the members-only rooftop lounge,’ Caleb informed her as a waiter arrived at their table with two flutes of champagne, depositing one in front of each of them. ‘It’s solely for VIP guests.’
Her eyes went round with surprise, looking first at him and then around the intimately lit surroundings. The tables were well spaced out, and many of them were occupied with parties of varying sizes. He watched her eyes pop with shocked recognition as she spotted the cluster of Hollywood superstars sitting with minor members of the British Royal Family and then graze the world-renowned tennis champion at the table behind, celebrating his latest championship title.
‘Well, I certainly feel foolish for not having realised that before now.’ She reached for her glass and was halfway to lifting it to her full pink lips when she froze, her eyes turning back to him. ‘That makes you a VIP guest too?’
‘Technically I’m the owner.’ He held out his hand, seeing further surprise abound through her expression. ‘Caleb Morgenthau.’
It was a novel experience for him to not be known. In Australia, the Morgenthau name was widely recognised, and as the son of such a professionally prominent and socially powerful father, Caleb’s profile had always been high. His personal business success, along with his unattainable, untameable bachelor status, had generated even greater attention around him, attention that followed him wherever he went, and six months of living in Singapore hadn’t changed that. He knew women were often drawn to him because of that notoriety. It didn’t bother him. He wasn’t looking for anything to last longer than a night, so the motives of the women who sought him out were immaterial, but it was refreshing to know that it hadn’t played any part in her interest and that she was there for the same reasons as him—pure physical and sexual attraction.
Slowly, almost shyly, she slid her fingers against his, and the feeling of her soft, delicate hand encased in his had the strongest sensations rippling across his skin. Her skin was as smooth and warm as he had imagined and the desire to touch more of her flared through him like a rocket, because her hand fit so seamlessly inside of his that he knew their bodies would lock together just as perfectly, as if they were connecting pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. ‘Serena Addison.’
Beneath his fingertips her pulse fluttered at twice the normal speed and that same explosion of feeling was mirrored in the eyes that boldly held his gaze.
‘Serena,’ he repeated, liking how the syllables rolled around his mouth. It was a name he wanted to say again and again and again. ‘That’s beautiful. It suits you.’
‘Thank you.’ Their eyes continued to hold in a way that had Caleb’s blood thickening and a series of low throbs beating pleasantly in his groin. ‘My mother was Italian, and even though she married an Englishman and settled in England, she wanted to honour her heritage with the name that she gave me.’
As Serena spoke, she rearranged her legs in front of her, drawing Caleb’s eyes down to their spectacular slim shape and length, and he couldn’t keep himself from imagining them curled around his waist. They were the only part of her body that her silky navy dress showcased, but she was definitely right to show them off. It took a giant surge of willpower to angle his gaze away from them quickly.
‘Italian?’ he asked, reaching for his own glass and taking a sip to moisten his mouth, because even by his standards, it was too soon to start taking it further yet. ‘Do you spend much time in Italy?’
